United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) chief technology officer Jason Bressler delivered a blunt message to mortgage professionals while on stage Tuesday at HousingWire’s AI Summit. The doom and gloom of high interest rates and industry consolidation aren’t going away soon, he said — but the practical use of artificial intelligence could give brokers a competitive edge.

Lenders, Bressler explained, are in a tight spot.

“We don’t know how to run our businesses to scale or to shrink down, to be able to adapt and adopt, because we haven’t had the opportunity to fully recognize everything that’s happening,” he elaborated.

Bressler admitted that he changed the script to his speaking session at HousingWire’s 2025 The Gathering about 20 minutes before he went on stage. Why? Because he noticed his fellow speakers displaying “deception” about the industry’s rapid mergers and acquisitions activity.

“I changed it because of all of the presenters that came before me were … like, this is a love fest, and everything’s so great, and all these mergers and acquisitions are going to be amazing,” he said. “And I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?'”

Instead, during Bressler’s speaking session dubbed “The CTO Playbook,” he told audience members that he considers the use of AI as a form of “empowerment” and “protection.”

On stage Tuesday at the AI Summit in Dallas, Bressler chose to echo the same sentiment while also using his platform to address concerns regarding M&A activity.

He warned that large-scale mergers and acquisitions “are not good for our industry,” as they often reduce competition and limit the available products, platforms and partners for smaller players.

“Mergers and acquisitions always follow the same set of standards and rules,” he said. “The first is [that] an ecosystem is created. That ecosystem benefits only people within the ecosystem.

“Second, people are let go, and then third, the ecosystem is officially stood up, and anybody who wants to play in the ecosystem is allowed to as long as they play by the ecosystem’s rules. And those rules are never advantageous to the people who want to get in.”

Bressler tied his concerns about M&A to his message about artificial intelligence as power.

Brokers must safeguard their control and independence, Bressler said. His core advice for brokers who want to stay competitive is to avoid relying solely on vendor-provided technology — including UWM’s — and to instead learn AI fundamentals to protect and strengthen their businesses.

“Control your own destiny,” he said. “Learn what AI actually is and use it to your advantage so you can call BS when you hear it.”

Bressler urged his audience to treat AI tools like ChatGPT as a “second brain,” where they can upload business history, test workflow changes and create feedback loops for decision-making. He added that building effective agents is now inexpensive and fast.

“Don’t build a faster horse,” Bressler said, quoting Henry Ford. “Reimagine the workflow. That’s what agents can do for you.”

LEO and Mia growing in prominence

Much of Bressler’s presentation at the AI Summit focused on practical usage of AI agents in a loan officer’s daily life.

UWM’s recently launched tools — LEO (Loan Estimate Optimizer) and Mia (Most Intelligent Agent) — are being rolled out to the Michigan-based lender’s vast network of mortgage broker partners. UWM is looking to further streamline the loan process in pursuit of CEO Mat Ishbia’s ambitious goal to achieve $280 billion in production volume by 2028.

Bressler said that LEO is able to spot “red flags” in various loan application and product offering combinations. It is also able to “instantaneously” analyze product and pricing engines, insert UWM’s loan overlays and provide a detailed summary of broker compensation options.

Importantly, it can also analyze competing offers while a broker is on the phone with a prospective borrower.

“While on the phone, they just say, ‘Hey, do me a favor. Just email that (offer) over. Let me take a look at it,” Bressler explained. “They upload it into our system and 15 seconds later, they’re going through and talking about why this is not an accurate or good (loan estimate) and can sell against it.

“This is an agent that we created in three and a half weeks. You do not need a team of 1,800 people working for you to be able to do this.”

Bressler went on to extol Mia’s ability to drastically reduce the lead generation pipeline for refinances. As an example, a broker with 100 loans in their system that have closed in the past three years at rates of 6% or higher might be scrambling to contact and qualify these refi candidates if rates drop to 5.5%.

“Mia will call all 100 on your behalf in five seconds, schedule appointments, have full-on conversations,” Bressler said, noting that the agent will not provide information on rates since it’s not a licensed LO.

Neil Pierson contributed reporting to this story.

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